CHARLESTON — For the first time this year and the second time since entering the Republican race for governor, new polling shows former House Judiciary Committee Chairman Moore Capito leading Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.

The Coalition for West Virginia’s Future, a pro-Capito group, released a poll Friday on the GOP race for governor. The poll was conducted by NMB Research between April 20-22 using both landline and cell phones. Respondents were screened for Republican registration and if they were likely to vote in the May 14 primary. The poll’s margin of error is 4.38%.

According to the poll, 31% of respondents said they supported Capito for governor, followed by 23% for Morrisey, 14% for Huntington businessman Chris Miller, 13% for Secretary of State Mac Warner and 18% undecided.

The poll was conducted shortly after Gov. Jim Justice announced his endorsement of Capito for governor on April 17. Capito and Justice have spent the last several days attending events in Wheeling and Bridgeport. According to a memorandum by Neil Newhouse with NMB Research, the poll also shows Capito’s momentum compared to the onslaught of negative ads being thrown between Morrisey and Miller.

“With three weeks to go before election day, this poll clearly shows that Moore Capito got a significant boost from Gov. Justice’s endorsement and has taken a lead while his two major opponents have been running negative campaigns against one another,” Newhouse said.

“While Capito has a current edge on the ballot, this race is fluid, as undecideds can tilt the race over the last few weeks of this campaign.”

Justice, the frontrunner in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate, was endorsed by Capito’s mother, U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., last April. According to the NMB Poll, 60% of respondents said they supported Justice, while 24% said they supported U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va.

Capito also released his second policy paper this week, focused on continued elimination of the personal income tax, regulatory reform, workforce training, tourism growth, using technology to propel the state economically and public safety and drug interdiction.